Finding Your Howl

The article Finding Your Howl by Jonathon Flaum in a lump sum can be described as a piece on what it really takes to "find your howl" or jump out of the box so to speak. The two stories he describes both focus on the same thing, finding your own voice, so you can get outside of the cell that one is stuck in. This prison could be either your fears, your past, society, your own problems with self-image, or anything that is inhibiting you from finding your one true voice. Flaum expresses that one cannot get out of this cage, but that "the only
antidote is to stay and examine every square inch of the cage, become aware of its construction
and our collaboration with its apparent solidity. We have to become aware that we created the cage
and, hence, the cage created us in its own image so that we identify with it and, though it has
become a prison, it is also a home(10)." By this he means, we need to accept our circumstances, and work around them to find a better form of life, or a "freedom" if you will. I interpret this in such a way that one must find their own creativity, or their own self, it won't find them. For instance, if you don't know how to write a script, but want to be a great writer, practice, and practice that craft, and look for it. Don't wait for it to magically appear in the night. Both the stories of Mumon and Nick's story about the tigers express this basic concept.

The quote that I have chosen to discuss, that speaks to me, and I think also relates well to this article is a quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The quote is : "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise." I think this quote relates specifically to the article because it dances around the idea that we are stuck in an infinite wormhole of uncertainty. For Fitzgerald " seeing things that are hopeless, yet determined to make them otherwise." For Flaum, "finding your howl, even though you're stuck in a cage that cannot be escaped from." The quotes specifically speak to me because it's relative to every single thing I will do in my life, even the simple things. I'm a liberal but I have some conservative view points,those are two opposing ideas. I want pepperoni pizza, but my girlfriends a vegetarian, what do I do? This is simple human problem solving. I don't believe in God, but I realize there is no certainty that I am one hundred percent correct on that viewpoint. Well what if I keep believing that I am right, then there is a God, and I go to Hell? Then what?  If one can think those things at the same time, and still be able to rationalize their thoughts, and sanely go on with their life, they have fulfilled the idea that Fitzgerald discusses. The quote speaks to me because everyone deals with that idea on a daily basis, yet some people can only handle thinking one idea, while drowning out the other. I think that is what creates such socially, and mentally divided people, especially in our country. That is, the inability to do what Fitzgerald discusses is the qualification for a first rate intelligence. The quote is especially important because it validates the fact that there is always an opposing side to everything, and that is something every conscious mind should be aware of.